Snickerdoodles

Have you seen the Cookie Monster "Call Me Maybe" spoof?

     

Pretty great, right?

If you have not seen it yet, please do. Who doesn't love Sesame Street parodies and spoofs? 

"Cereal Girl" will forever be my favorite.

In the vein of cookies and sharing I am making snickerdoodles for a coworker's birthday 

and the lovely Norwegian guests we have staying with us in San Francisco. And for my roomies. 

But they only get the dough.    

Snickerdoodles

     from Sweet Cream and Sugar Cones

     yields 30+ cookies

**chill the dough for 2 hrs before baking**

Ingredients

2 cups flour

2 tsp cream of tartar

½ tsp kosher salt

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 ½ cups sugar

2 eggs

For dusting

1 tbsp cinnamon

¼ cup sugar

Directions

In a bowl, combine the flour, cream of tartar, and salt. Set aside.

Using a standing mixer or electric one, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high until light and fluffy, 2 minutes or so. One at a time add in the eggs. Wait until each is combined before adding the next. 

Scrap down the sides of the bowl and slowly add the flour mixture in, but don't over mix. Stop mixer just as the flour is all combined.

Adding in the eggs individually.

Cover the dough and let chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours or over night. 

Preheat oven to 350°. Position oven racks in the top and bottom thirds of the oven. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In a small bowl whisk the cinnamon and sugar together. Using a small ice cream scoop, scoop balls of dough into the cinnamon-sugar bowl, cover dough in the cinnamon and sugar, and place on cookie sheet. Do not flatten into a disc, these cookies spread while baking so space them 3 inches apart.

Use a small, 1 oz. ice cream scoop.

Keeps the cookies consistently the same size.

Bake for 5 minutes then you will rotate the sheets top to bottom, front to back. Bake for 7 more minutes until the cookies are golden.

Let the cookies cool completely on a wire rack. Serve with - what else? - milk!

Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookies

Only in recent years have I come to love coconut. As a kid, I associated coconut with two things: tropical scenes in movies like Swiss Family Robinson and the sad pile of rejected Almond Joys left behind during Halloween candy sorting. Of course the Swiss Family Robinson association is a positive one! I put that movie on a pedestal, but the reality of coconut, in Almond Joy form, was too much for this kid.

Luckily my tastes have matured - somewhat - and I find coconut desserts delicious which makes the combination of my favorite cookie and coconut the perfect marriage of traditional and tropical. The flavors really work well together. The toasted coconut provides just enough coconut flavor and a really nice texture.

Best part of baking? Tasting the dough.

And this cookie dough is almost better than the cookies.

Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookies

     original recipe from Cooking Light

Ingredients

1 cup flour

½ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp baking soda

Pinch of salt

¾ cup packed brown sugar

¼ cup unsalted butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla

1 large egg

1 cup flaked sweetened coconut

1 cup chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°.

To toast the coconut, scatter the coconut in a thin layer on a cookie sheet and heat in the oven for 3 minutes, stir, and return to the oven for about 2 minutes. These times will vary depending on your oven so keep an eye on the coconut. Remove from oven when the majority of the coconut is a soft golden color, do not burn it!

In a small bowl whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a standing mixer cream the butter and sugar together. Beat in the egg and vanilla.

Add the dry ingredients until just combined. Fold in the coconut and chocolate chips. Eat dough.

Spoon the dough out onto your cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack. 

Learn from my mistake and make these cookies larger than I did. 

When it comes to cookies, bigger is better.